COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Juan Pablo Fuentes (Guadalajara, Mexico/) was one of many Western New Mexico University men's tennis players to land on the All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Teams as he was named Player of the Year Wednesday as announced by the conference office.


Fuentes, a sophomore from Guadalajara, Mexico, went 14-9 during the regular season in singles, going 6-0 at No. 1, 7-6 at No. 2 and 1-3 at No. 3. Fuentes also went 13-9 in doubles play with Rodrigo Almeida (Arapongas, Brazil/Nene Lourenco High School) and Omar Lopez (Naucalpan, Mexico/). Fuentes won nine straight that started with a win over Texas Permian Basin. The streak also included wins over Division I Idaho State, Southern Utah, Seattle and five wins in conference. He also won three of his doubles matches in conference play, while pulling out wins over Point Loma, Cameron, Southern Utah and Seattle.


Almeida and Alvaro Nunez (Madrid, Spain/) were selected to the Second-Team. Almeida, a junior from Arapongas, Brazil, was named the Preseason Player of the Year. He went 9-8 in singles play with all of his matches at the top flight, he also went 10-8 in doubles play at the top flight with Fuentes. He came away with wins over Point Loma and had two wins in conference. Nunez, a sophomore from Madrid, Spain, posted a 12-13 singles mark going 3-0 at No. 2, 2-4 at No. 3 and 7-9 at No. 4. Nunez also went 12-8 in doubles action, going 12-7 with Francisco Damasio (Jundiai, Brazil/Centro Educational Sigma ). Nunez won all five matches in conference. In doubles, they have rolled off seven straight wins including victories over Southern Utah and Seattle, along with all five conference matches.


Roy Ulibarri (Dexter, NM/Dexter High School) landed on the Third-Team singles squad. Ulibarri, a senior from Dexter, N.M., went 11-8 in singles play, posting a 4-4 mark at No. 5 and 7-4 record at No. 6. In doubles, he accumulated a 4-3 mark. He collected wins over Point Loma, Southern Utah and won three conference matches.


WNMU also had three doubles teams selected All-Conference. Nunez and Damasio, along with Almeida and Fuentes were named to the First-Team, while Jorge Carretero (Asturias, Spain/) and Matthieu Covizzi (Noailly, France/) landed on the Third-Team. Carretero and Covizzi went 12-12 with most of their matches coming at No. 3 (9-10) and 3-2 at No. 2.


WNMU will travel to Grand Junction this weekend to compete in the RMAC Championships that will start Saturday.

Player of the Year: Juan Pablo Fuentes (Guadalajara, Mexico/)

Freshman of the Year: Spencer Weinberg

Coach of the Year: Dan MacDonald

 First Team All-RMAC Singles
Name, School Yr. Hometown/Previous School Playing #
*Juan Pablo Fuentes (Guadalajara, Mexico/), Western New Mexico So. Guadalajara, Mexico 2
Navin Marimuthu, Montana State Billings Sr. Chennai, India/Universal School 1
Andres Garcia-Rojas, Colorado Mesa Fr. Toronto, Canada/Leaside HS 3
Alex Lesiuk, CSU-Pueblo Sr. Winnipeg, Canada/St. Cloud State 1
Gabriel Vlahos, Metro State Sr. Sao Paulo, Brazil/Ventura College 1
Brandon Beardsley, Montana State Billings Fr. San Diego, Calif. 4
* - unanimous first team selection
Second Team All-RMAC Singles
Rodrigo Almeida (Arapongas, Brazil/Nene Lourenco High School), Western New Mexico Jr. Arapongas, Brazil/Nene Lourenco HS 1
Spencer Weinberg, Colorado Mesa Fr. Grand Junction, Colo./Grand Junction HS 2
Jordan Lyden, Colorado Mesa So. St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS 1
Alvaro Nunez (Madrid, Spain/), Western New Mexico So. Madrid, Spain 4
Christian Fischer, Montana State Billings Jr. Berlin, Germany/College of the Desert 2
Adrien Delvaux, Metro State Jr. Flower Mound, Texas/Flower Mound HS 2
Third Team All-RMAC Singles
Kavindu Gamage, Montana State Billings Jr. Melbourne, Australia 5
Andres Hernandez, Colorado Mesa Sr. Valencia, Venezuela/Liceo Camoruco HS 6
Nick Baker, Metro State So. Lee's Summit, Mo./Baker University 3
Taylor Macres, Colorado Mesa Fr. Westminster, Colo./Mountain Range HS 4
Brason Hollabaugh, Colorado Mesa Sr. Amarillo, Texas/Tascosa HS 5
Roy Ulibarri (Dexter, NM/Dexter High School), Western New Mexico Sr. Dexter, N.M./Dexter HS 6
First Team All-RMAC Doubles
Team Playing #
Jordan Lyden/Spencer Weinberg, Colorado Mesa 1
Alvaro Nunez (Madrid, Spain/)/Francisco Damasio (Jundiai, Brazil/Centro Educational Sigma ), Western New Mexico 2
Rodrigo Almeida (Arapongas, Brazil/Nene Lourenco High School)/Juan Pablo Fuentes (Guadalajara, Mexico/), Western New Mexico 1
Second Team All-RMAC Doubles
Navin Marimuthu/Christian Fischer, Montana State Billings 1
Alex Lesuik/Saul Shrom, CSU-Pueblo 1
Adrien Delvaux/Vlahos, Metro State 1
Third Team All-RMAC Doubles
Brandon Beardsley/Josh Hedderig, Montana State Billings 2
Jorge Carretero (Asturias, Spain/)/Matthieu Covizzi (Noailly, France/), Western New Mexico 3
Brad Knutson/Kavindu Gamage, Montana State Billings 3